Rating: 
Summary: Better but not best
Review: Winter's Heart is a serious improvement to the previous book, Path Of Daggers in that the story moves along and does not jump around. How ever not enough questions are answered, and the main characters are not portrayed in as much depth as I would like to see them. Never the less this is still the best series in sci-fi-fantasy and I will continue to eagerly await each new installment - if in paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Battered Reader Syndrome
Review: I've put my last 26.95 into Robert Jordan. This book was slightly better than the previous installment, but it still was a shadow of A Shadow Rising -- the last good book in this series. There are now more side-plots than real plot and more dangling threads than any of the many WOT message boards. I no longer enjoy the company of Rand or Perrin -- even Matt's antics wear thin. Of course all of Jordan's female characters are harridans and intolerable -- I actively hope for their deaths. Of course no one actually dies, because they are either saved by the deux et machina of Tav'eren'ness (sp) or recycled by the Dark One (he's so enviro!). After the ninth installment in a series where there are now more mediocre books than good ones, I've decided to seek help for my battered reader syndrome.
Rating: 
Summary: Four and a half to five Stars
Review: I can't believe the people who say that nothing happened in this book. After two very slow, uncentered-around-the-main-character installments,(which were also very necessary in mine opinion)Mr. Jordan starts off with a promise in the prologue: "I am going to ...." and Rand fulfills that promise. Basically, he said this is my target, and I WILL take it down. And then he does take it down. The time in between the prologue and the last chapter is generally well-spent, particularly the chapters involving Mat. The couple chapters about Perrin weren't bad either, and this is the first book since The Shadow Rising where all three of the main characters are advanced in one volume. Yes, Perrin is not taking as many or as big of steps as Rand or Mat, but he is still advancing. Plus Rand and Lan work together again toward the end of this book. Plus there is the last chapter With The Choedan Kal where Rand services the target selected in the prologue......
No, Robert Jordan is not writing a soap opera, and no he is not writing/riding a cash cow. He is creating a universe so that he may tell a story and somehow I doubt that those who give these books bad ratings have done much writing. As a would be author I have tried to write a universe to tell my story, and it is not an easy feat. If I wrote a story half as complicated as Mr.Jordan's and wrote it half as well I would not be ashamed. Two-thirds as well and I would be pleased. To those who give this series less than three stars, please, be patient. This is not a martial arts movie or an action film. He is trying to tell a story and that is not very easy to do. If he does not put enough detail in it, he may as well have left it at the good-guys win/the bad guys lose.
Rating:
Summary: WInters Heart is a great book
Review: Though it is true that there arnt many battles in book 9, i believe most of the previous reviewers are not grasping the concept that Jordan is trying to get to. If you look at the whole series as one giant book, there is falling and rising action spread out throughout the series. Book 9 is full of rising action. Though not many battles take place, we do see sadin cleansed and more characters introduced. The book follows the rest perfectly and i cant wait for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Ever Lasting Anguish
Review: I would love to take a peek into Jordan's source for the Aiel and most of the descriptions that interlace in his plots. One thing I highly reccomend of his readers is to read a single book on the tribes of Arabia; trust me, you would be shocked. The Aiel for instances are a copy cat in all their toh and traditions of the Tribal Traditions of Southern Arabia Desert!!!?Even the clothing. Lets spin it a bit, the name al'Thore is actually a name of a famous Tribe in Yemen. How about the name Isam, again its an arabian name. Many things in his epic are diluted from the Middle East, its as if he pulled the threads from there and formulated the WOT. Nevertheless, everybody needs an inspiration. Thanx to my History class, I know where that inspiration came from. Still, the series are marked with nothing but a fantastic. I wouldn't hesitate to read them all over again. The man has a bottomless well of rich and vivid imagination that deserves red hot applaud.
Rating:
Summary: I can see the plot...
Review: Hummm... a six year old can even see this. Book by book, Rand goes madder and madder that to me seems to be the long story line. Hey, I did not even START to read this book; I am still trying to recuperate from the utterly dull 8th book. First few pages: As Elyne straightened her skirts, Rand could feel the taint, "Luck be with me," said Mat. B O R E I N G. But I could not stand to give it 3 stars. If they had a 3.5, I would. But, I am a loyal reader of The Wheel of time, and Mr. Robert Jordan, when is it going to end? Aren't you rich enough with your ingenious ideas? Can you at LEAST give all of us puppies following u blindly a little clue, when it will end? I want to see what happens in the end, and I thought HOPEFULLY this would be it. But alas, no. But in the next book, have the caters have some INDIVIDUALITY. They seem to me that they are all wearing either blue or white, not much PERSONALITY.
Rating: 
Summary: Ends with a bang, but overall a whimper of a book.
Review: The last pages of Winter's Heart leave a good final impression, but it's easy to run from that to "The Book is AMAZING!!!" and forget that during the other 700 pages of the book, essentially nothing happens. A bonding and a kidnapping? That's what I read all night to find out? When I started reading the series, Min and Nynaeve were two of my favorite characters. Now, they have been reduced to overexaggerated caricatures of women -- petty, spiteful, and incapable of an honest and straightforward relationship with anyone. Perrin and Egwene are more like minor characters now, and even Mat has lost some of his charm. The plot twists have made a mockery of the saying "truth is stranger than fiction." Not when Robert Jordan's fiction is stringing us along! Also, when I saw the cover of the book I was convinced that this would be the book where Moiraine returns. It certainly looks like her on the cover, and it even looks like Thom might be beside her, which would satisfy the prophecies from previous books. Yet.... nothing. Some hints of Lanfear, but nothing more than hints. I was very disappointed. There are many reviews listed here that itemize every complaint about the book, most of which I completely agree with. Jordan may have written a better book compared to the two before Winter's Heart, but it is a far cry from the first few books, and it is certainly not a good stand-alone novel. Until I read more action (and I'm not talking about side-plot action here) and less babble, I'll continue borrowing the book from friends as I have been doing for the last two books. Jordan can string me along until he dies if he chooses, but I'm certainly not going to pay him for it anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Did anything happen?
Review: I picked up this series about 18 months ago and tore through it. The first three or four books were excellent. Their stories were gripping and emotional. But something happened around books five or six where the first half of the book was spent painstakingly refamiliairizing the reader with the characters and their current surroundings, and the second half was spent building up "something big" that either never happened, or was not much different than the conclusion of the last book. As the series progressed, I found that more and more of the books were devoted to summarizing the last book, and less was actually happening to develop the story. Winter's Heart was just that. The only real action came within the first 150 pages, and then resurfaced after a long snooze in last 30 pages. The rest of the book's 700+ pages seemed nothing more than filler. While reading the first half of this book (the paperback edition) I was ALMOST grateful for Jordan's re-introduction to all the characters, because it's been about a year since I read book 8 - and there are A LOT of characters. You've got the entire Emonds Field crew (who all have their own followers and are scattered all over the world), about 4 separate factions of Aes Sedai, The Forsaken, The Asha'man, The Seanchan, The Sea Folk, renegade Aiel... and Jordan keeps introducing new characters on top of that. Its no wonder he has to devote half the book to our re-acquaintence with them. Aside from that, after reading through the entire book, I feel like nothing was accomplished until the final 30 pages or so. It's almost like this entire book was just a reminder to the reader that "the bad guys are still out there and they are about to attack on all fronts." There was little-to-no new character development, and the story itself seemed to go nowhere. Finally, at the end of the book (and I'm amazed I made it that far) Rand manages to accomplish one of his major goals as Dragon Reborn. But by the time the action finally picks up at the conclusion, it's over so fast that it seemed like Jordan simply rushed through the finale because he was going to miss a deadline. Next, Jordan's portrayal of all of the women in this book are really starting to annoy me. All the women in this book are either nagging, whiny, irritating creatures, OR bossy, self-centered control-freaks. At one time, I used to like Elayne and Faile, but now I find them more annoying than I could have ever imagined. I used to like the Aes Sedai, but now I can empathize with all of Jordan's characters as to why they dislike them so much. (After careful consideration, I decided that Jordan might be a really talented writer and this may be his intent, hence the two stars, rather than one). But the point I'm trying to make is a majority of the characters I used to like are now so annoying that I find myself not caring what happens to any of them. This is not the best way to keep a reader's interest. In a nutshell, the 700+ pages of this book could have easily been about 200. No one appeared to make any progress in their individual missions. None of the characters developed any further, or accomplised anything of much use. New characters trickle into Jordan's world but seem flat and useless to the overall story. This was yet another book that seemed like no more than a build-up to the next book. Ironically enough, this was my description of the last book, and the one before that. Yet, despite my opinion that nothing is happening in this story, I find myself buying volume after volume nonetheless. Sooner or later I will stop falling for it. (Sigh... bring on Book 10).
Rating: 
Summary: MIND NUMBING BOREDOM!
Review: I have read the other books in this series and I have to agree with other reviewers. The first four books were fantastic and I counted myself fortunate that I found them after all were printed. I have been waiting for Winter's Heart for a long time and needless to say, I am very disappointed. It feels like Robert Jordan is simply shuffling through drudgery in the attempts to satisfy publishers. This book is REALLY hard to read. Not for difficulty, but for sheer boredom. The women in this book are irritating and mindless. The CONSTANT references to sniffing, snorting, pulling of braids, blah blah blah. Come up with some new descriptions. Also the fact that ALL the women are so full of themselves it makes you want to throw the book in the trash just to escape them. Bottom line: Save you money. The Wheel of Time has finally stopped turning.
Rating:
Summary: I suspect a heart attack before the end of this series.
Review: Upon finishing the ninth book of this lengthy saga, I can see right now what Robert Jordan is up to. He's going to make it LAST as long as he can. With all these millions of little threads underlying the main plot, there's no way he can cinch this skein in one more book. Impossible. He will not finish it in the tenth book, nor I suspect even in the twelth, unless he goes with a quick "And then the world got its act together, beat the dark side, and lived happily ever after" ending. And who on earth would accuse Jordan of being trite like that? Not I. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the stress of writing causes him to have a heart attack before he is finished (and woe to TOR who will have to deal with thousands of frenzied, unsatisfied fans.) Book nine finally shows that some of the prophecies given in the first 4 books can and will come true. However, they are not yet done - some of the characters and civilizations built up in the past have yet to show up, or prove anything beyond useless in the fullfillment of world-altering prophecies. Rand is the central character, but dull as dirt. Perrin seems to have all but been written off in books 8 and 9, though as always, he'll return. Matt's finally back, but I can't say I'm excited. Nynaneve is suddenly very important to Rand, and Rand's harlem of females have all been struck dumb. Even the plot line with Egwene seems to be thinning - with so many sources of headstrong annoying women, who really cares WHAT happens to the White Tower any more? Though on that note, Moiraine is being mentioned again, hmmmm. And the Forsaken.... does Jordan even know what he's doing with all of them? I have my doubts. With all of this said, I will not stop reading this series. It's good. It's entertaining. It's still in my top ten of series I'd recommend to a friend. The writing style is enjoyable despite the longwindedness (or perhaps because of his acute use of detail?) But it's also frustrating. It's not so much as the reader being kept on his toes by twists and turns so much as the reader having to deal with constant (yet sometimes inconsitant) changes from minor to major. The "Time of Change" excuse can't cover everything; I think maybe Robert needs to start rereading his own books to recover his spot in writing and give us a pleasant surprise in the tenth book - a faster tempo.
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